Haunted Castles

Subject: Haunted Castles Tue Jul 15, 2008 1:00 pm

Haunted Castles
The Ghost of Anne Boleyn at Hever Castle

Nestled in the Kent countryside, Hever Castle is rather small, but played an important role in the History of England.

Hever Castle was built around 1270 and at the time consisted of a gatehouse and a walled bailey, which was surrounded by a moat. In 1460 the castle came into the possession of a wealthy London merchant named Henry Bullen. A Tudor dwelling was added inside the protective walls by the Bullen Family. His son Thomas changed his surname to Boleyn and married Elizabeth Howard, daughter of the Duke of Norfolk.

Thomas and Elizabeth had several children, one of which was Anne Boylen.

As Richard Jones tells the story.......

"In 1525, Henry VIII began an affair with Anne’s sister, Mary. When Mary and her husband, William Carey, had a son the following year, whom they named Henry, court gossip was rife concerning the boy’s paternity. Thus, when Henry’s lusting eye focused on Mary’s younger sister, the king expected little more than a token resistance. The strong-willed Anne, however, had other ideas. If Henry wanted her, he would have to marry her, and thus began a game of chase in which the king, for once, was forced to fight for his quarry. Henry wrote 17 letters to Anne, pledging himself, “in heart body and will” her “loyal and most ensured servant.” Consumed with passion, he wrote how he wished to be “in my sweetheart’s arms, whose pretty dukkys I facest shortly to kiss.”

Henry began his attempts to divorce Catherine of Aragon, and created Anne Marchioness of Pembroke. Anne traveled with the royal retinue and was given her own apartments. Finally, secure in the knowledge that the king was hers, she surrendered to his advances, and by the time she and Henry were secretly married in January 1533, Anne was pregnant. In the June of that year, her ambitions were realized when Archbishop Cranmer placed the crown on her head and declared her Henry’s queen. It was a universally unpopular coronation. As far as most people were concerned, Anne was a witch who had seduced the king, and whose unforgivable actions had resulted in a dreadful rift between Church and State. In September, Anne gave birth to a daughter. Henry, who had long hoped for a son and heir, was disappointed yet not despairing, and the girl was christened Elizabeth. When Anne’s next pregnancies ended in miscarriage, the king’s ardor began to cool, and he found solace in the arms and bed of one of her maids of honor, Jane Seymour. Henry began paying attention to the gossip spread by Anne’s detractors, and on May 2, 1536 she was arrested and charged with treasonous adultery and incest with her own brother. Anne was sent to the Tower of London, declared guilty, and sentenced to death. On May 19, 1536, she was beheaded at the Tower of London.

Inevitably, Anne Boleyn haunts Hever Castle – Christmas Eve being her chosen day. Her somber specter is seen drifting silently over the picturesque bridge that spans the River Eden, in the grounds of the home where she knew much happiness, and from which she embarked upon a journey that would change the course of English history. "

Castle Brando in Italy

Dare to stay in Castle Brando, one of the most haunted castles in Italy.
This castle, dating back some 2000 years or more has played host to numerous famous and infamous characters!

Follow in the footsteps of Italian Kings and Queens, Casanova, Dante, Antonio Vivaldi, to name just a few!

The Count Brandolini of the Castle was a feared and sometimes hated man. Like all castles, the castle in Cison di Valmarino is a fascinating and mysterious place and has been a source of legends and tales for centuries! Historical events, popular fantasy, envy or lust for revenge against the ruler gave birth to often scary and obscure legends set in the middle ages and more recent times. These legends sometimes took the form of rumours or countryside stories and were passed on from father to son during the "filo", a traditional occassion for telling the stories.

One of the legends of the castle:

The story goes that the pretty women from the county were forced to spend their first wedding night with the count ("ius primae noctis"). After the nuptials the brides were taken from their dwellings into the Lord's boudoir on the castle 1st floor. The trysts often ended on a negative note for the unlucky girls whose husbands dared to challenge the Lord's right. Women who rejected the Lord's advances were beheaded, their heads cast aside into a trapdoor built into the Lord's boudoir. It is said that the heads then rolled down the mountainside and their blood-curdling screams of innocence could and still can be heard from miles around!

The trap door was still in existence during the 1st World War when Countess Serra entered the opening into the mountain to escape German attack and reached safety!

Villagers say that the Count can be seen every full moon wandering around the castle on horse back searching for his lost soul!

Tamworth Castle

Tamworth is a traditional motte and bailey castle. It is thought to date from the 1180's. Numerous alterations and additions have been added to the castle over the years by the different owners. It is unsure who was the first Lord of the castle, evidence shows it was both Robert de Despencer and Robert Marmion. It continued in this family until the last Baron died. In 1423 the castle was passed to Sir Thomas Ferrers, then by marriage to the Shirleys of Chartley in 1688, in 1715 the Earls of Northampton and to the Townshends of Raynham in 1751. The Tamworth Corporation then brought the castle in 1897 for the sum of £3000 and was opened to the public in 1899.
The castle was threatened twice with destruction the first in 1215 when when King John sent in forces in revenge with Sir Robert Marmion having sided against him and again during the cicil war it was held by Royalists, Cromwell ordered the destruction of the castle but the threat was not carried out.

There are said to be many ghosts that haunt the castle, the most popular are the White Lady who was captured and locked in The Tower by Sir Tarquin. She ended up falling in love with Tarquin and now wanders around looking for her love who was slain by Sir Lancelot du Luc who come to rescue her, and the Black Lady who is thought to be Editha the nun whose order of nuns were removed from the nearby convent by Robert de Marmion.

Fyvie Castle

Fyvie Castle is said to contain a secret room within the Meldrum Tower which if anyone enters a disaster will follow them.

The legend of the weeping stones of Fyvie came about after a visit from Thomas the Rhymer. He was also called True Thomas and he had the gift of prophesy and seeing the future which he gained after a love affair with a Fairie Queen. On his visit to Fyvie Castle Thomas foretold doom until three stones which were used for the Preston Tower are returned to their original placement which was between the Church lands and the Castle. One is thought to be in the Charter Room, another in the foundations of the Tower and the last is somewhere in the River. Each stone is said to weep whenever trouble threatens the Laird of Fyvie. One stone in the Tower remains dry when all the surrounding stones are wet, and when they are dry this one stone is wet...

Two haunted rooms are called the Murder Room and the Ghost Room where a lady was confined in one and then move to another, locked in and starved to death. Her skeleton was unearthed by workmen in the 1930s. The ghost is known as The Grey Lady.

On the 8th May 1601, Dame Lilias Drummond, first wife of Alexander Seton died and Alexander remarried (to Grizel Leslie) shortly after. On the wedding night the newly weds heard great sighing outside their room. In the morning the window sill had an upside down carving which read D.Lilias Drummond. She has haunted the Castle since and is known as The Green Lady. Whenever she appears something terrible happens to the family. It is not known how Dame Lilias Drummond died, some say she was starved to death by her husband for not producing a male heir, others say she died of a broken heart, whilst others say she died of an illness.

The Castle also has a drummer ghost, though some refer to it as a trumpeter ghost. It is thought to be the spirit of Andrew Lammie who was either banished or abducted when he fell in love with the local miller's daughter, Agnes. He plays his instrument when a member of the family is near to death.

Alexander Forbes-Leith bought Fyvie Castle in 1889. With it, he acquired bith a curse, and perhaps, the only ghost ever to have signed its name in stone for later generations to see.

The castle, which stands some 30 miles north-west of Aberdeen, has been described as the 'crowning glory of Scottish baronial architechture'. Its foundations were laid before the Noran conquest in 1066 and, since the 14th Century it has been held only by 5 great families.

Like many a blight on the old Scottish families, the Fyvie Curse was the work of the ubiquitous Thomas the Rhymer. Although he wasshrouded in legend and superstition, it seems certain that Thomas of Erceldounewas a real person. He was born in 1220 and is mentioned as a witness to a ded at the Abbey of Melrose in around 1240.

In his own day it was supposed that Thomas was the lover of the queen of Elfland. it was she who had given him the power of prophecy; and when he vanished it was thought that he had been carried off by her, but it is far more likely that he was killed by robbers.

Wile he was alive, his travels were well documented, but he was rarely ever welcome as his prohecies only ever told of disaster. Few lairds however dared to turn him away as they feared that even worse would fall on them.

According to James Murray, who documented the story, Fyvies walls stood open for seven years and a day, awaiting his arrival. When he arrived, 'he suddenly appeared before the fair building, accompanied by a violent storm of wind and rain that stripped the leaves from the trees and shut the castle gates with a loud crash.'

Not surprisingly, Thomas was a biut ticke off that the castle gates should shut in his face, and he yelled this curse at the owners of the castle.

'Fyvie, Fyvie, thou's neer thirve
As lang's there's in thee stanis three
There's ane intill the oldest tower
There's ane intill the layde's bower
Theres ane intill the water-yett
And thir three stanes ye's never get.'

This was taken to mean that three stones that had been recently taken from a nearby church would act as evil omens as long as they remianed part of the building. Only one of the stones, in the lady bower has been found and so the curse remains.

The stone stands in a wooden bowel in the charter room today.

The one in the water-yett has never been found, and the other one is built into what is now the Preston Tower.
_________________
“Dream as if you'll live forever, live as if you'll die today.”

Subject: Re: Haunted Castles Tue Jul 15, 2008 8:58 pm

Fantastic Kath and thank you so much indeed. I would love to go to these places..
_________________
Lots of love and hugs from Cindy xxxxxxxxxxx

A medium with 3 growing children and married to a wonderful Husband. I have been doing readings since I was a child.

Subject: Re: Haunted Castles Thu Jul 17, 2008 9:22 pm

I will have to go to them. Cool.

Subject: Re: Haunted Castles Sun Aug 10, 2008 5:58 pm

Dark figure haunts visitors to Oxford Castle

A photograph, which has captured a dark figure taken in the foreboding underground Crypt at Oxford Castle Unlocked, has revealed the paranormal does exist and confirms beliefs that the Castle is haunted.

The photograph was taken on Friday 16 May by a member of the public at a ghost hunt organised by Fright Nights, the UK's leading ghost hunt specialist.

The brave ghost hunter, who was alone in the Crypt at the time, took the photograph with his digital camera. Keiron Brown from Alton in Hampshire was astonished to see the dark shadow of a figure at the end of the corridor leading into the Crypt when he looked at the images on his computer after the event.

The astounding photograph has since been analysed by experts at Fright Nights and at Oxford Castle Unlocked.

Martin Jeffrey, Director of Fright Nights stated We were amazed by this photograph.

Our analysts have shown that the figure is jet black and unusually not lit up by the flash, where as the side walls and the wall behind it have visible lighting caused by the flash.

We can also confirm that the figure is facing the camera and seems to have some form of hood, head dress or blindfold.

We know that the Crypt was used for the storing of criminals especially those waiting execution, so the figure fits perfectly within the history of the Castle.

Fright Nights were granted exclusive use of Oxford Castle Unlocked in which to hold overnight paranormal investigations for the public since early 2007. The visitor attraction is thought to be one of the most haunted buildings in the country.

Throughout its dark history, the Castle has served time as a royal residence, a centre of justice and as the county Gaol, hidden from public view behind impenetrable 5 metre high stones walls until its closure in 1996.
Martin continued, This photograph tops off a fantastic eighteen months of ghost hunting events at Oxford Castle Unlocked.
We have had continual paranormal activity throughout the Castle that has inspired attendees to return over and over again.
_________________
“Dream as if you'll live forever, live as if you'll die today.”

Subject: Re: Haunted Castles Sun Aug 10, 2008 6:06 pm

Spooky Majic, ghostly happenings

_________________
Lots of love and hugs from Cindy xxxxxxxxxxx

A medium with 3 growing children and married to a wonderful Husband. I have been doing readings since I was a child.

Subject: Re: Haunted Castles Sun Aug 10, 2008 6:45 pm

Cool stuff and thanks